Facilitating integration of collaborative communication platform and document collaboration tool

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are some implementations of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for integrating a collaborative communication system and a document collaboration system. A document within the document collaboration system may be linked to an object within the collaborative communication system. A user post may be received in association with the object or the document. A first feed configured to be rendered in association with the object is synchronized with a second feed configured to be rendered in association with the document such that both the first feed and the second feed each includes the user post.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

An Application Data Sheet is filed concurrently with this specificationas part of the present application. Each application that the presentapplication claims benefit of or priority to as identified in theconcurrently filed Application Data Sheet is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to integrating a collaborativecommunication platform and a document collaboration tool. Morespecifically, this patent document discloses techniques for implementinga link between an object within the collaborative communication platformand a document maintained within the document collaboration tool.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, applications, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, data can be provided by servers via the Internetrather than relying on data available locally on in-house computersystems. As such, users can interact with cloud computing services toundertake a wide range of tasks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an integrated system 100, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 2 shows an example of integrated system 100 updating feeds, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a feed 300 presented via a collaborativecommunication system, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a UI 400 for integrating a collaborativecommunication system and a document collaboration system, in accordancewith some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for integrating acollaborative communication system and a document management system.

FIG. 6A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 6B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 6A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 7A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 7B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program productsaccording to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

A collaborative communication system is an online collaborativecommunication platform that enables employees of an organization toaccess database records pertaining to business opportunities or otherbusiness interests, as well as communicate regarding those businessopportunities or business interests. Often, employees wish tocollaborate on a document pertaining to a particular businessopportunity or business interest. However, document collaboration istypically supported by a document collaboration system that isindependent from (e.g., external to) the collaborative communicationsystem. Unfortunately, employees collaborating on the document will beunaware of recent updates pertaining to the related business opportunitywithin the collaborative communication system. Similarly, employeesaccessing the business opportunity on the collaborative communicationsystem will be unaware of the most recent information pertaining to therelated document maintained by the document collaboration system. As aresult, with conventional systems, employees often have to repeatedlyswitch contexts to access the separate systems if they wish to remaincurrent on the business opportunity and the associated document.

Various implementations described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forfacilitating the integration of a collaborative communication systemwith a document collaboration system. A link between an object of thecollaborative communication system and a document within the documentcollaboration system may be generated in response to user input. Once alink between the object and the document is established, associatedupdates may be automatically shared between the document collaborationsystem and the collaborative communication system.

In accordance with various implementations, the link may be abidirectional link. In other implementations, the link may be aunidirectional link. In response to an update to an object in thecollaborative communication system or an associated feed, the update maybe automatically reflected in a feed presented by the documentcollaboration system in association with the document. Similarly, wherean update to a document or associated feed occurs, the update may beautomatically reflected in a feed presented in association with theobject.

An object can include a record or group of records in a database. Anobject can pertain to a business opportunity or project, a businessgroup, a company, a product, or other entity.

An update to an object can include a modification to associated records.For example, an update to an object can include a new record, thedeletion of a record, Similarly, an update to an object can include amodification to field(s) of a record. In some implementations, an updateto an object can include a user post to an associated feed. Informationpertaining to the update to the object can include an identity of a userthat has updated the object, a date that the object was updated, and/ora time that the object was updated.

A document can include a digital document that is generated ormaintained by a document management system. For example, the documentcan include an article, text, an image, a photograph, a file, aspreadsheet, a table, etc. As another example, the document can includea web page. As yet another example, a document can include a record orgroup of records in a database. A document can be created in response touser input. Once created, the document can be updated by the same userand/or other users who have access to the document.

An update to a document can include any modification to the document.For example, the update can include generation of the document, deletionof the document, an added field to the document, a deleted field of thedocument, and/or text that has been added to the document. In someimplementations, an update to a document can include a user post to anassociated feed. Information pertaining to the update to the documentcan include an identity of a user that has updated the document, a datethat the document was updated, and/or a time that the document wasupdated.

By way of illustration, John is an employee at an organization, PyramidConstruction, Inc. John logs in to the organization and uses acollaborative communication system, which enables employees of theorganization to access information regarding business opportunities, aswell as communicate regarding business opportunities. John accesses auser interface (UI) to link a business opportunity, XYZ, with a documentpertaining to XYZ that is available from a document collaborationsystem. John submits a user post regarding XYZ on the collaborativecommunication platform, and the user post is automatically posted in afeed presented via the document collaboration system in relation to thedocument. Another employee, George, submits a user post regarding thedocument via the document collaboration system, and the user post isautomatically posted in a feed presented via the collaborativecommunication platform in relation to XYZ. The disclosed techniques maybe applied to integrate a collaborative communication platform and adocument collaboration system, as will be described in further detailbelow.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an integrated system 100, in accordance withsome implementations. Integrated system 100 includes collaborativecommunication system 104 and document collaboration system 106.Collaborative communication system 104 may maintain records associatedwith objects in one or more databases. Example objects include, but arenot limited to, companies, business opportunities, accounts, tickets,and invoices.

In some implementations, collaborative communication system 104 mayenforce a permissions configuration for accessing the objects. Differententities may be provided with permission to own, edit, or access thevarious objects. The permissions configuration for an object may bedetermined at least in part based on the permissions configuration forusers within a social networking system.

Collaborative communication system 104 enables users to communicate withone another regarding objects to which they have access. For example,collaborative communication system 104 may present a web page associatedwith an object. The user may access data pertaining to field(s) ofdatabase record(s) pertaining to the object via the web page. Inaddition, the web page may provide a mechanism that enables the users tocommunicate with one another regarding the object. Such a mechanism mayinclude an information feed, as will be described in further detailbelow.

Document collaboration system 106 may maintain documents in one or moredatabases. Document collaboration system 106 may provide a web-baseddocument editing utility that allows direct modification of documents.In this way, the contents of the documents may be edited directly via aweb browser, and updates to the documents may be immediately shared withother users.

In addition, document collaboration system 106 enables users tocommunicate with one another regarding documents to which they haveaccess. Document collaboration system 106 may provide a digitalinterface for collaborating on a document. For instance, one user mayupload a document, while another user may edit the document. If adocument is shared with a group of users, then members of the group maybe granted access to the document by virtue of the sharing operation.

In some implementations, document collaboration system 106 may present aweb page associated with a document. In some implementations, the usermay access field(s) of database record(s) pertaining to the document viathe web page. In addition, the web page may provide an information feedor other mechanism that enables the users to communicate with oneanother regarding the document, as will be described in further detailbelow.

Collaborative communication system 104 and document collaboration system106 may be maintained by the same organization or independentorganizations. Therefore, collaborative communication system 104 anddocument collaboration system 106 may access different databases orshare the same databases.

In accordance with various implementations, an object 108 maintained bycollaborative communication system 104 may be linked to a document 110maintained by document collaboration system 106. Collaborativecommunication system 104 can provide updates associated with object 108to document collaboration system 106, either directly or indirectly, viaan application programming interface (API) of document collaborationsystem 106. In addition, document collaboration system 106 can provideupdates associated with document 110 to collaborative communicationsystem 104, directly or indirectly, via an API of collaborativecommunication system 104.

FIG. 2 shows an example of integrated system 100 updating feeds, inaccordance with some implementations. Collaborative communication system104 and document collaboration system 106 may independently publishupdates to objects and documents, respectively. As shown in thisexample, collaborative communication system 104 may publish updates toan object via web feed, feed 102, which may be used to facilitatedigital conversations regarding the object. Similarly, documentcollaboration system 106 may publish updates to a document via web feed,feed 2 204, which may be used to facilitate digital conversationsregarding the document.

A user may access feed 202 by logging into collaborative communicationsystem 104 and accessing object 108. A user may access object 108 byaccessing a corresponding web page presented by collaborativecommunication system 104. For example, the user may click on a hypertextlink presented by collaborative communication system 104.

Similarly, a user may access feed 204 by logging into documentcollaboration system 106 and accessing document 110. For example, a usermay access document 110 via a corresponding web page presented bydocument collaboration system 106.

Each feed allows a user to track the progress of the correspondingdatabase record(s). Updates to the record, also referred to herein aschanges, can occur and be noted on an information feed. With thedisclosed embodiments, updates are often presented as an item or entryin the feed. Types of such updates can include field changes in a datarecord, posts such as explicit text or characters submitted by a user,status updates, uploaded files, and links to other data or records.Also, one type of update is the creation of a record itself. Those usersthat are following the record or who have access to the record may viewupdates on the corresponding feed. The access may include viewing,editing, sharing, updating, publishing, or performing any otheroperations related to the associated records. The access may be providedin the context of a network.

Implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, and methods areconfigured to integrate a document collaboration system 106 with acollaborative communication system 104. More particularly, feed updatesmay be shared between collaborative communication system 104 anddocument collaboration system 106. Updates to feed 202 may be replicatedin feed 204. For example, user post 206 submitted via collaborativecommunication system 104 may be presented in both feed 1 202 ofcollaborative communication system 104 and feed 2 204 of documentcollaboration system 106. Similarly, updates to feed 2 204 may bereplicated in feed 1 202. For example, user post 208 submitted viadocument collaboration system 106 may be presented in both feed 2 204 ofdocument collaboration system 106 and feed 1 202 of collaborativecommunication system 104. In some implementations, feed 204 is presentedin a “collaboration sidebar” of document 110.

A user post may include text submitted by a user. In someimplementations, a user post may further include a document that isposted by the user. For example, the document may be posted as anattachment to a message including the text. In some implementations, theattached document may be uploaded from a client machine or retrievedfrom a network location.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a feed 300 presented via a collaborativecommunication system, in accordance with some implementations. In thisexample, the object to which feed 300 pertains is a businessopportunity, “Advanced Communications—Services 80K.” Feed 300 includesuser posts pertaining to the business opportunity. Feed 300 can alsoinclude updates to fields of a record pertaining to the businessopportunity. In addition, as described herein, feed 300 can replicateinformation presented by document collaboration system in associationwith a document related to the business opportunity.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a UI 400 for integrating a collaborativecommunication system and a document collaboration system, in accordancewith some implementations. As shown in this example, a user can access adocument 410 via document collaboration system 106. Documentcollaboration system 106 may present a feed 420 in conjunction withdocument 410. As shown in this example, document 410 and feed 420 bothpertain to the business opportunity, “Advanced Communications—Services80K” of FIG. 3. Feed 420 may include one or more feed items. Moreparticularly, feed 420 may include user posts that have been submittedvia document collaboration system 106, as well as user posts that havebeen submitted via collaborative communication system 104, as describedherein. Feed 420 may further indicate updates to document 410. Inaccordance with various implementations, feed 420 may further includeupdates to a record storing data pertaining to the business opportunity,which are shared by collaborative communication system 104 with documentcollaboration system 106.

A user may initiate the generation of a link between an object anddocument. In accordance with some implementations, the user may initiatethe generation of a link via a web page, which may be presented viacollaborative communication system 104 or document management system106. In some implementations, the user may specify or otherwise indicatea document identifier and object identifier. For example, a document orobject identifier may include a numerical identifier or other text. Inother implementations, the user may indicate a document identifierand/or object identifier using a drag-and-drop operation or menuselection. For example, the user may drag-and-drop the document to a webpage pertaining to a business opportunity or other object. As anotherexample, the user may attach the document to an electronic mail messagepertaining to the object.

In some implementations, integration of collaborative communicationsystem 104 and document management system 106 is facilitated by softwarethat is independent from collaborative communication system. Forexample, the software may be accessed and downloaded from a web sitesuch as an application store. As another example, the software may beaccessed and downloaded from a web page accessed via a hypertext link oruniform resource locator (URL). The software may interface with an APIof collaborative communication system 104 and an API of documentmanagement system 106.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 500 for integrating acollaborative communication system and a document management system.User input initiating the generation of a document-object link may bereceived at 502. The user input may indicate an identity of an objectthat corresponds to a record stored in a database of a collaborativecommunication system and an identity of a document accessible from adocument collaboration system. The user input may explicitly and/orimplicitly identify both the object and the document. Thus, the inputmay indicate a request to generate a link between the object and thedocument. The input may be received via the collaborative communicationsystem, the document collaboration system, or another independentsoftware module. For example, the user input may include a drag-and-dropoperation, a document identifier, a document name, an object identifier,an object name, and/or a web link.

Responsive to the user input, a link between the object and the documentmay be generated and stored at 504. The link may be unidirectional orbidirectional. The link may be stored as metadata within a database ofthe collaborative communication system or the document managementsystem. For example, the link may include a pointer or other metadatathat associates the object with the document.

A user post submitted by a user in association with the object may bereceived at 506. Responsive to receiving the user post, a first feedconfigured to be rendered in association with the object is synchronizedwith a second feed configured to be rendered in association with thedocument at 508. More particularly, the first feed may be updated suchthat it includes the user post. The user post may be provided at 510 fordisplay within the first feed via a display device.

Any other users who access the object may be presented the first feed,which includes the user post. Similarly, a user accessing the documentvia the document collaboration system may be presented the second feed,which includes the user post submitted via the collaborativecommunication system.

In further implementations, feed synchronization includes communicatingobject updates to the document collaboration system. Thus, an update tothe object may be reflected in the first feed provided by thecollaborative communication system and the second feed provided by thedocument collaboration tool. For example, a change in a value of arecord of the collaborative communication system may be reflected in thesecond feed provided by the document collaboration system.

In some implementations, the second user feed may be updated via an APIof the document collaboration system. For example, the user post or linkthereto may be provided as a parameter of the API to the documentcollaboration system. As another example, a field of a data record,information pertaining to an update to the data record, or a link to thedata record may be provided to the document collaboration system. Asdescribed herein, the collaborative communication system or independentsoftware module may communicate with the API of the documentcollaboration system.

User posts submitted in relation to the document via the documentcollaboration system may similarly be replicated in the first feedprovided by the collaborative communication system. In someimplementations, the collaborative communication system receives asecond user post or link to the second user post that has been submittedvia the document collaboration tool. For example, the second user postor associated link may be received via an API of the collaborativecommunication system. The collaborative communication system may thenupdate the first feed such that the first feed includes the second userpost.

In accordance with various implementations, updates to the documentmaintained by document collaboration system may be reflected in thefirst feed provided by the collaborative communication system. In someimplementations, the collaborative communication system receivesinformation pertaining to update(s) to the document from the documentcollaboration system or an independent software module. For example, thedocument update(s) or link thereto may be received via an API of thecollaborative communication system. The collaborative communicationsystem may then update the first feed such that the first feed includesthe information pertaining to the document update(s).

Various embodiments described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forfacilitating the publication of updates regarding documents andassociated objects within an information feed in an on-demand databaseservice environment.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented using or in conjunction with a customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) system or other database management system. CRM systemshave become a popular way to manage and analyze customer interactionsand data throughout the business lifecycle. Salesforce.com, Inc. is aprovider of CRM services and other database management services, any ofwhich can be accessed and used in conjunction with the techniquesdisclosed herein in some implementations. In some but not allimplementations, these various services can be provided in a cloudcomputing environment, for example, in the context of a multi-tenantdatabase system. Thus, the disclosed techniques can be implementedwithout having to install software locally, that is, on computingdevices of users interacting with services available through the cloud.

Some CRM systems can be implemented in various settings, includingorganizations. For instance, a CRM system can be implemented to providedatabase access to users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, employee users in a division of a business organizationmay share data with users in another division of the businessorganization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail below. In some but not allimplementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, and computerprogram products may be configured or designed for use in a multi-tenantdatabase environment.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as customer sales data for a potentially much greater number ofcustomers.

Where there are multiple tenants, a user is typically associated with aparticular tenant. For example, a user could be a salesperson of acompany, which is a tenant of the database system that provides adatabase service.

In some implementations, data objects in the form of CRM records such ascases, accounts, or opportunities are stored in a database system.Updates to a record may include any change to a record. Examples ofrecord updates include field changes in the record, updates to thestatus of a record, as well as the creation or deletion of the recorditself.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get.

In one implementation of a multi-tenant database system, each record forthe tenants has a unique identifier stored in a common table. A recordhas data fields that are defined by the structure of the object (e.g.,fields of certain data types and purposes). A record can also havecustom fields defined by a user. A field can be another record orinclude links thereto, thereby providing a parent-child relationshipbetween the records.

A record can also have a status, the update of which can be provided byan owner of the record or other users having suitable write accesspermissions to the record. The owner can be a single user, multipleusers, or a group.

In various implementations, an event can be an update of a record and/orcan be triggered by a specific action by a user. Which actions triggeran event can be configurable.

Some non-limiting examples of systems, apparatus, and methods aredescribed below for implementing database systems and enterprise levelnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system.Data may be synchronized between a database system of a primaryorganization and a database system of a secondary organization. Datasynchronization may be suspended and resumed, as described above.

FIG. 6A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 6A (and in more detail inFIG. 6B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.6A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creating, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 6A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation ofapplications, storage of the applications into one or more databaseobjects and executing of the applications in a virtual machine in theprocess space of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 6A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer.” User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 6B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 6A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 6B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 6B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 6B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 6B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.6B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 6A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 6B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 6A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N)-₁ might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc. can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and/orupdate system-level or tenant-level data from system 16, which mayinvolve sending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/orsystem data storage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 insystem 16) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., oneor more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desiredinformation. System data storage 24 may generate query plans to accessthe requested data from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data (e.g., data item) for each category definedby the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table thatdescribes a customer with fields for basic contact information such asname, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table mightdescribe a purchase order, including fields for information such ascustomer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant databasesystems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by alltenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities mightinclude tables for case, account, contact, lead, and opportunity dataobjects, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understoodthat the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with“object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 7A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.7A and 7B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 7A and7B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 7B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 7B.

FIG. 7B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

In some implementations, one or more application servers or otherservers described above with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B include ahardware and/or software framework configurable to execute proceduresusing programs, routines, scripts, etc. Thus, in some implementations,one or more of application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N) of FIG. 6B can beconfigured to initiate performance of one or more of the operationsdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 1A-7D by instructing anothercomputing device to perform an operation. In some implementations, oneor more application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N) carry out, either partially orentirely, one or more of the disclosed operations described withreference to FIGS. 1A-7D. In some implementations, app servers 988 ofFIG. 7B support the construction of applications provided by theon-demand database service environment 900 via the pod 944. Thus, an appserver 988 may include a hardware and/or software framework configurableto execute procedures to partially or entirely carry out or instructanother computing device to carry out one or more operations disclosedherein, including operations described above with reference to FIG. 5.In alternative implementations, two or more app servers 988 maycooperate to perform or cause performance of such operations. Any of thedatabases and other storage facilities described above with reference toFIGS. 6A, 6B, 7A and 7B can be configured to store lists, articles,documents, records, files, and other objects for implementing theoperations described above with reference to FIG. 5. For instance, listsof published fields associated with corresponding connections can bemaintained in tenant data storage 22 and/or system data storage 24 ofFIGS. 6A and 6B. In some other implementations, rather than storing oneor more lists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, the databasesand other storage facilities described above can store pointers to thelists, articles, documents, records, and/or files, which may instead bestored in other repositories external to the systems and environmentsdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 6A, 6B, 7A and 7B.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (ROM) devices andrandom access memory (RAM) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cloud-based system for collaborating onelectronic documents, the system comprising: a database systemimplemented using a server system, the database system configurable tocause: creating, using a database, an electronic conversation configuredfor user collaboration regarding an electronic document; tracking, usingthe database, one or more posts regarding the electronic document, theone or more posts being included in the electronic conversation;sending, to a user device, page data configured to be processed to causedisplay of a page identifying the electronic conversation, the pageconfigured for one or more of: creating a new conversation, displayingthe electronic conversation, or displaying messages in the electronicconversation; sending, to the user device, list data configured to beprocessed to cause display of a list of data objects, the listcomprising an indication that at least one of the data objects isassociated with the electronic conversation; sending, to the user deviceand responsive to an indication of a selection of the one data object,object data configured to be processed to cause display of theelectronic document; obtaining, from the user device and in associationwith display of the electronic document, an indication of a request toopen a sidebar associated with the displayed document to start orparticipate in the electronic conversation; and sending, to the userdevice, sidebar data configured to be processed to cause display of thesidebar with the displayed document, the displayed sidebar showing theelectronic conversation.
 2. The cloud-based system of claim 1, whereinthe electronic conversation is configured to provide collaboration onelectronic documents by users within and outside of an organization. 3.The cloud-based system of claim 1, the database system furtherconfigurable to cause: sending, responsive to a first user sharing anelectronic document with a second user, a notification to a computingdevice associated with the second user, the notification indicating thatthe second user can access the shared document.
 4. The cloud-basedsystem of claim 1, wherein the electronic conversation is createdresponsive to user input requesting generation of a link between theelectronic conversation and the electronic document.
 5. The cloud-basedsystem of claim 4, wherein the user input comprises a drag-and-dropoperation, a document identifier, a document name, or a web link.
 6. Thecloud-based system of claim 4, wherein the link is a bidirectional link.7. The cloud-based system of claim 1, the database system furtherconfigurable to cause: ascertaining that a value of a field of theelectronic document has changed; and updating the electronicconversation with a message indicating the changed value of the field.8. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program codecapable of being executed by one or more processors when retrieved froma non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code comprisinginstructions configurable to cause: creating, using a database, anelectronic conversation configured for user collaboration regarding anelectronic document; tracking, using the database, one or more postsregarding the electronic document, the one or more posts being includedin the electronic conversation; sending, to a user device, page dataconfigured to be processed to cause display of a page identifying theelectronic conversation, the page configured for one or more of:creating a new conversation, displaying the electronic conversation, ordisplaying messages in the electronic conversation; sending, to the userdevice, list data configured to be processed to cause display of a listof data objects, the list comprising an indication that at least one ofthe data objects is associated with the electronic conversation;sending, to the user device and responsive to an indication of aselection of the one data object, object data configured to be processedto cause display of the electronic document; obtaining, from the userdevice and in association with display of the electronic document, anindication of a request to open a sidebar associated with the displayeddocument to start or participate in the electronic conversation; andsending, to the user device, sidebar data configured to be processed tocause display of the sidebar with the displayed document, the displayedsidebar showing the electronic conversation.
 9. The computer programproduct of claim 8, wherein the electronic conversation is configured toprovide collaboration on electronic documents by users within andoutside of an organization.
 10. The computer program product of claim 8,the instructions further configurable to cause: sending, responsive to afirst user sharing an electronic document with a second user, anotification to a computing device associated with the second user, thenotification indicating that the second user can access the shareddocument.
 11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein theelectronic conversation is created responsive to user input requestinggeneration of a link between the electronic conversation and theelectronic document.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11,wherein the user input comprises a drag-and-drop operation, a documentidentifier, a document name, or a web link.
 13. The computer programproduct of claim 11, wherein the link is a bidirectional link.
 14. Thecomputer program product of claim 8, the instructions furtherconfigurable to cause: ascertaining that a value of a field of theelectronic document has changed; and updating the electronicconversation with a message indicating the changed value of the field.15. A method comprising: creating, using a database, an electronicconversation configured for user collaboration regarding an electronicdocument; tracking, using the database, one or more posts regarding theelectronic document, the one or more posts being included in theelectronic conversation; sending, to a user device, page data configuredto be processed to cause display of a page identifying the electronicconversation, the page configured for one or more of: creating a newconversation, displaying the electronic conversation, or displayingmessages in the electronic conversation; sending, to the user device,list data configured to be processed to cause display of a list of dataobjects, the list comprising an indication that at least one of the dataobjects is associated with the electronic conversation; sending, to theuser device and responsive to an indication of a selection of the onedata object, object data configured to be processed to cause display ofthe electronic document; obtaining, from the user device and inassociation with display of the electronic document, an indication of arequest to open a sidebar associated with the displayed document tostart or participate in the electronic conversation; and sending, to theuser device, sidebar data configured to be processed to cause display ofthe sidebar with the displayed document, the displayed sidebar showingthe electronic conversation.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein theelectronic conversation is configured to provide collaboration onelectronic documents by users within and outside of an organization. 17.The method of claim 15, further comprising: sending, responsive to afirst user sharing an electronic document with a second user, anotification to a computing device associated with the second user, thenotification indicating that the second user can access the shareddocument.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the electronicconversation is created responsive to user input requesting generationof a link between the electronic conversation and the electronicdocument.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the user input comprises adrag-and-drop operation, a document identifier, a document name, or aweb link.
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein the link is abidirectional link.